Reading machines use optical character recognition (OCR) and text-to-speech (TTS) i.e., speech synthesis software to read aloud and thus convey printed matter to visually and developmentally impaired individuals. Reading machines read text from books, journals, and so forth.
Reading machines can use commercial off-the-shelf flat-bed scanners, a personal computer and the OCR software. Such a reading machine allows a person to open a book and place the book face down on the scanner. The scanner scans a page from the book and the computer with the OCR software processes the image scanned, producing a text file. The text file is read aloud to the user using text-to-speech software.